Top 30 Quotes on Regret.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.-John Barrymore

Regret is the emotion of wishing one had made a different decision in the past because the consequences of the decision were unfavorable. We regret our decisions, choices (choice of mate, education, career, parenting). Regret feels bad because it implies a fault in personal action: You should have done it differently, hence self-blame is a component of regret (Connolly & Zeelenberg, 2002).

In her book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, Australian palliative caregiver Bronnie Ware, documented the top regrets of her dying patients, their insights on living, their dying epiphanies, and their top regrets.  According to Bronnie Ware, there are 5 top Regrets of the Dying:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Here are the top 30 quotes on regret:

• Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. – Don Miguel Ruiz
• Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart. – Basil Rathbone
• Living with regrets was like driving a car that only moved in reverse. – Jodi Picoult
• Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been. – Kurt Vonnegut
• Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in. – Katherine Mansfield

Life is over so quickly. It is possible to reach the end with no regrets. It takes some bravery to live it right, to honour the life you are here to live but the choice is yours.

• Regret is counterproductive. It’s looking back on a past that you can’t change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future. – Colleen Hoover
• Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity. – Arabian Proverb
• When we grow old, there can only be one regret, not to have given enough of ourselves. – Eleonora Duse
• No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. – Umar ibn Al-Khattab
• The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say ‘Yesterday I was happy, Today I am not. – E.M. Forster

• Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. – Sydney J. Harris
• Regret is an unavoidable result of any loss, for in loss we lose the tomorrow that we needed to make right our yesterday or today. – Gerald Lawson Sittser
• We cannot always change what has happened to us, but we can change how we react and how we live in the future. Living with no regrets is living successfully. – Dr. Ellen Taricani
• Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. – Charles Dudley Warner
• A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future. – Oliver Goldsmith
• One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself. – Shannon L. Alder
• We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow. – Fulton Oursler
• You can never regret anything you do in life. You kind of have to learn the lesson from whatever the experience is and take it with you on your journey forward. – Aubrey O’Day
• Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret. – Robert E. Lee
• Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. – Henry David Thoreau

• The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. – Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Adults most common regret: I never took enough risks. Next: I wasn’t assertive enough and I lacked self-discipline. – Rickard T. Kuiner,
• The longer our trail of regrets, the more we tend to value the importance of making wise decisions. – Bob Santo
• A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.-John Barrymore
• Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.-Victoria Holt

Adults most common regret: I never took enough risks. Next: I wasn’t assertive enough and I lacked self-discipline. – Rickard T. Kuiner

• We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. –  Jim Rohn